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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24170524">Midnight Melody</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryWriter357/pseuds/StarryWriter357'>StarryWriter357</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Camp Camp (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Awkward Crush, Awkward Romance, Crushes, Denial of Feelings, F/M, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Funny, Other, Romance, Secret Crush, Shipping, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:00:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,090</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24170524</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryWriter357/pseuds/StarryWriter357</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nikki has a small but strongly hidden secret she keeps from the rest of the camp: she can sing pretty well. One night of struggling to fall asleep leads her into the middle of the woods to sing to herself in an attempt to wind down, but it also leads to her secret being exposed when a restless boy in a blue hoodie finds her after sharing the same struggle of not being able to sleep.</p><p>In other words, Nikki can’t sleep and goes to the woods to sing. Max can’t sleep and decides to investigate where the hell that singing is coming from.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Max &amp; Nikki (Camp Camp), Max/Nikki (Camp Camp)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>61</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Midnight Melody</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was around the time of midnight and Camp Campbell managed to become a still atmosphere of tranquility, which was something very rare regarding the campsite of rambunctious children.  The usual lively atmosphere of the camp, along with the sounds of screaming campers and scolding counselors, ceased to exist around this time of night. Now, nothing more than the occasional sounds of trees swaying and crickets chirping were heard. The sky was beautiful with the stars painting the blanket of dark blue like freckles, and this was the kind of night sky thousands of painters would become inspired by to create new artwork.</p><p>It was a very peaceful night, one that would easily soothe anybody to sleep.</p><p>“Ugh I can’t sleep!”</p><p>Anybody except Nikki that is.</p><p>Nikki groaned to herself, somewhat whisper shouting her words as she dragged her fingertips down her cheeks in annoyance. She was tossing and turning in her cot, having been doing so for the past forty five minutes. For reasons not even she could understand, she couldn’t fall asleep. The silent setting was absolutely perfect for a good night’s sleep, yet her body refused to cooperate. </p><p>“Maybe I’ll tire myself out! Go swinging on the trees or something that will force my brain to shut off.” </p><p>She wasn’t really up for an attempt at finding mythical hidden creatures or just a general all out adventure, but concluded that at least swinging through a few trees or just simply walking through the forest would be enough to soothe her to sleep.</p><p>She gently picked herself up from the cot, jumping off and and landing swiftly yet silently on the ground in a rabbit like motion. She tiptoed to the opening of her tent, and took a step out underneath the moonlight. She stared at the sky for a few seconds, admiring the piercing yet welcoming light of the moon and stars before resuming her mission of going through the forest. She continued to take swift yet light footsteps, not wanting to produce any sounds that could wake someone up.</p><p>As she entered the forest of tall trees and occasional flowers blooming from the ground, a certain song came back into her mind. She subconsciously began to hum the earworm that’s been practically living in her brain for the past week.</p><p>“Say there’s this person you pass in the hall everyday...” Nikki sang softly yet sweetly to herself. Unbeknownst to everybody else at camp, Nikki loved to sing, and she was very good at it when she actually tried. Her voice was strong yet sweet, and when she sang it could energize yet simultaneously ease a person. Her voice would bring the type of magical yet nostalgic feeling that Disney movies would emit, which made her voice perfect for either power ballads or musical productions. Speaking of musical productions, she slapped her face after she realized what she sang.</p><p>“Aw man Preston! I can’t believe I’m actually humming one of your dumb songs.” She muttered to herself before continuing to trek through the woods. For the past two weeks, Preston was obsessed with the musical...she forgot the name. All she knew was that it involved this squip thingy and that Preston wouldn’t shut up about it. Every day he would reference the musical ten times at the very least, and would sing a song from said musical twenty times at the very least. The first week he would change up the song selection, but this week he seemed very adamant on singing one song and one song alone.</p><p>She didn’t want to memorize the song, and she definitely didn’t mean to. However, hearing Preston perform the whole song every time she saw him and every opportunity he could get (He even performed it on the amphitheater during one of his performance nights!), she didn’t really have a choice. It just managed to get into her brain and before she could stop herself, she knew almost the entire song by heart.</p><p>She didn’t want to admit that she liked the song either.</p><p>Why did she like the song so much? She had multiple reasons to. The tune was catchy, it was lively and upbeat, the song’s energy matched her everyday energy, she could have fun with it and even found herself getting lost in dancing to it, the reasonings seemed endless.</p><p>However, one reason stood out above the rest, one that caused her cheeks of peachy hues to silently blush a rosy color that clashed with the white light emitting from the moonlit sky.</p><p>She related to the lyrics WAY more than she‘d like to admit.</p><p>Seeing somebody in a whole new light? Thought she had somebody completely locked down from the moment she met him yet being proven completely wrong over time? Feeling a part of her deep inside treasuring the moments when she would talk, sit or even hang with him? Oh yeah the song DEFINITELY hits close to home for her.</p><p>A guy that I’d kinda be into....</p><p>This was DEFINITELY NOT helping her situation at ALL. Her conflicting feelings for her asshole of a best friend (feelings which she chose to ignore nonetheless) were not helping to prepare her for slumber, and caused her inability to fall asleep to actually worsen. She felt butterflies start to swarm from her stomach up to her lungs, and felt her heart do that weird palpitating thingy that only occurs when she’s around him. This isn’t good, she’s never going to fall asleep at this rate.</p><p>“Ack! Stop it brain! Stop thinking about him and keep going.” Nikki scolded herself, but reluctantly admitted that singing would actually help calm her down. She didn’t want to wake anybody up (and the possibility of anybody at camp hearing her sing contributed to her heartbeat rising even more than it already was), but she couldn’t stop herself from humming and found that singing brought her peace. She was already a far enough distance from the campers’ tents, and she knew she was going to have to turn around to head back after a few more steps.</p><p>She took a breath of admittance and continued to sing the words that would make Preston fight the urge to duet, and forgot all about her original plan of swinging through branches. </p><p>“You’re used to thinking about him in a certain way...”</p><p>—————————</p><p>Max couldn’t fall asleep.</p><p>However, unlike Nikki, he knew the reason why he couldn’t. The boy in the yellow v-neck knew he drank too much black coffee before curfew (five cups to be exact), but he didn’t know that the caffeine would affect him this badly. He thought that since he drank a LOT of coffee on a daily basis, the caffeine would have little to no effect on his system. Clearly he was wrong, as he’s been staring at the ceiling of his tent for thirty minutes. </p><p>He sat up in his cot, looking around to see if there was anything he could do in that tent to help bring him to sleep. He looked at the flasks of tonics that Neil brought into their tent to experiment with before the scientist went to sleep, but Max wasn’t sure if Neil worked on a sleeping tonic of any sort. Speaking of Neil, he turned to his right to see the socially anxious boy passed out on his cot, mumbling scientific equations in his sleep. Max contemplated pranking Neil in hopes of the nerd waking up so Max wouldn’t have to suffer the temporary insomnia alone, but eventually decided against it since Neil would probably snap at him out of tiredness or find a subtle way to exact revenge on him the next morning. Not that he was scared or intimidated by Neil, but he simply didn’t have the energy or patience to deal with any of that during this time of night...or early morning.</p><p>His lingering eyes eventually locked onto the somewhat open flap of his tent, the glow of the moon and stars finding a way to seep into the boys’ tent and onto the ground within. The light projected a triangular oval (if that even made any sense) on the ground, and Max felt as if it was luring him to take a step outside and roam around camp.</p><p>Eventually, Max gave in. He decided that maybe walking around the camp or simply sitting in the mess hall or by the extinguished campfire in silence would tire him out due to boredom. He pulled himself out from under his blanket, threw on his trademark blue hoodie, and stepped out of his tent.</p><p>“Now where should I go...” Max questioned himself, looking around at the tents surrounding his as he weighed his options. He eventually decided on the mess hall, simply because nobody else was there and it would be a perfect place to do whatever a restless ten year old could do when he couldn’t fall asleep. And, if his inability to sleep becomes even worse, he could simply brew himself enough coffee to help him stay awake for the incoming day.</p><p>As he was ready to approach the mess hall, something caught his ear.</p><p>Was somebody...singing?</p><p>At first he ignored it, thinking it was his brain fucking with him as a form of revenge for the amount of caffeine surging through his body. However, as he kept walking towards the mess hall, the singing became louder and he could make out the words coming from the song.</p><p>“But then something changes...and he changes...”</p><p>He tried thinking to himself why the song sounded so familiar, and eventually realization hit him like a brick.</p><p>“Jesus Christ it’s from that stupid musical that Preston won’t shut the fuck up about.” Max pinched the bridge of his nose out of annoyance, getting flashbacks from earlier in the day when Preston recited that song for the fifth time during lunch. Max ignored Preston’s mini performances the entire day, but for some reason he couldn’t ignore this one. He eventually realized that not only was it because of the song being sung at this unexpected hour of the night, but also because it wasn’t Preston’s voice singing it this time.</p><p>“Who the hell is singing? And it’s not even Preston.” Max asked himself again, realizing that he was doing quite a lot of talking to himself tonight. He eventually scrapped the idea of going to the mess hall, and decided to go and investigate where the melody was coming from.</p><p>“Oh man if this is Gwen singing, ESPECIALLY at this time of night, this will be perfect blackmail material.” Max smirked to himself as he followed the sound into the woods. He knew he was getting closer, because the volume of the song was becoming louder and he could even hear the clear diction of the words that he wasn’t able to hear by the campfire. However, as he drew closer, he also realized that the voice wasn’t Gwen’s, but sounded VERY familiar.</p><p>Eventually he reached the spot where the singer was located, and to say he was awestruck was an understatement.</p><p>Of all the people he expected to be singing at this time of night, and singing very well he might add, he didn’t expect it to be his chaotic partner in crime.</p><p>“Say there’s this person that you never knew that well.”</p><p>She decided to add her own backup vocals, giggling a little bit to herself as she accompanied her solo with “She is totally into you.” before going back into her main solo.</p><p>Nikki decided to sit down for a while before returning back to her tent, which is why she was currently sitting crisscross on the wide and lush grass patch in the middle of the woods. Her back was unknowingly turned to Max, with her gaze focused on the moon and stars above. </p><p>“You thought that you had him pegged but now you can tell, he’s gone-“</p><p>Now that she reached the second chorus of the song, she wanted to give more of herself into the lyrics. She began to sway along to the beat of the song and uncrossed her legs, stretching them out so her calves could rest sturdily yet gently on the ground. Even her feet joined the rhythm as her red sneakers began to kick back and forth. </p><p>“From a guy that you’d never be into, into a guy that you’d kinda be into...”</p><p>She sang clearly yet softly, giving more energy yet refusing to allow her volume to become any louder than a whisper shout. Her eyes were still focused on the celestial bodies inhabiting the night sky, and they seemed to look back down on her with a warm and gentle luminosity that could rival the sun’s. </p><p>Max wasn’t used to seeing Nikki like this at all. He always saw her when she was her usual bubbly, energetic, and chaotic self. He always knew her for making confusing yet adorable references to wildlife, running on all fours around camp while simultaneously intimidating people, or just causing general mayhem with him. </p><p>But here she was, looking the most composed and serene that he’s ever seen the girl. She seemed so at peace, and was lost in the melody of her own voice. She looked like she was glowing underneath the mix of moonlight and starlight, and the vast darkness of the woods contrasted with that light and added an element of mystery to her appearance. He couldn’t see her face that well, but he already knew that her eyes were gleaming. They always did that whenever she got excited or when she was just really happy, and Max genuinely believed that the twinkle in her eyes made every star in the sky tonight look like nothing more than dying out Christmas lights. Speaking of lights, fireflies began to enter the scenery. There wasn’t a lot of them, but there was enough to add hints of light to areas that were dimmed by the shade of the trees. With the glow of the fireflies surrounding the teal haired girl, Nikki began to remind Max of a fairy.</p><p>The more he stared at his best friend and listened to her sing, the more he felt something warm form within him; something that gave him the same feeling of the moonlight but stronger. The entire scene in front of him, with the moon and the stars and the breeze of the forest and the fireflies and the sweet lullaby, was breathtaking.</p><p>She was breathtaking.</p><p>Wait....wait a fucking minute-</p><p>Did he just...think that? </p><p>“Holy shit.”</p><p>Max muttered to himself out of shock and realization as he gripped his chest lightly. He unfortunately knew that he was starting to develop feelings for her, but didn’t think they were becoming this bad. Hell, he didn’t even like admitting he had them. He did everything in his power to deny they even existed and constantly tried to force his feelings down, refusing to act on them in any way, shape or form...with the key word in this sentence being ‘tried’.</p><p>“...Max?”</p><p>Oh fuck, he forgot she didn’t know he was there.</p><p>He looked up to lock eyes with the girl who was now standing up, and he saw something that he rarely ever saw in her.  She was embarrassed, and he could see it in her eyes and from her tense body language. </p><p>Nikki was freaking out, a million thoughts racing through her mind, but she eventually decided to voice the first two thoughts on her mind.</p><p>“What are you doing here?”</p><p>“Couldn’t sleep, decided to go to the Mess Hall, heard singing, and went to investigate.”</p><p>“....how long have you been here?”</p><p>Max hesitated before giving an honest answer.</p><p>“Since you began to sing the second verse...at least I think it was the second verse. I don’t know, I’m not a fan of the shit Preston listens to.”</p><p>He tried to act casual, as if him stumbling upon her singing her heart out wasn’t a big deal. Meanwhile, if Nikki were to die at that time and place, she wouldn’t mind it at all. She plopped back down on the grass and buried her face into her hands.</p><p>“Oh my gosh you heard me sing.”</p><p>She squeaked out before hugging her knees close to her chest. Her face was hidden in her knees but she already knew she was the same color as her eyes. She felt her face burn up immensely as she was silently pleading the universe to calm her down. </p><p>Max was a little confused as to why she was acting like this was the worst thing she’s done in her life, and thought there was no reason for her to be embarrassed of something she’s amazing at. At the same time however, he understood where she was coming from, getting flashbacks to the time where everybody at camp discovered his talent at tap dancing.</p><p>He stepped over the bushes he was currently standing behind, before gently seating himself next to the girl.  Silence enveloped that area of the woods, and it wasn’t the typical peaceful silence that the forest usually provided. Rather, it was the type of awkward silence where nobody dared to speak or make a sound, where it was so quiet that one could hear the other party’s breathing.  In this case, Max didn’t speak a word as he could hear Nikki take rushed and staggered breaths, clearly deciphering the struggle she had with calming herself down. This continued on for the next minute or two, before Max decided that he had enough of the tense atmosphere and wanted to help the girl sitting next to him calm down.</p><p>He wasn’t good at comforting people or at breaking the ice, and he was definitely the last person one would want at their side during an embarrassing situation like this. He couldn’t handle people or emotions properly, and the fact he had to handle them simultaneously during this night was practically hell.</p><p>But nevertheless, he took a deep breath before saying the first thing that came to his mind.</p><p>“You sing really well.”</p><p>.....what?</p><p>Nikki was surprised to say the least. She was actually complimented for her singing, and by Max nonetheless! She lifted her face up from her knees before turning to look at the boy with her face still glowing pink and her eyes twinkling once more from appreciation. The compliment caused her pupils to dilate so much that almost the entire area of each of her irises were overtaken by pitch black. </p><p>“.....Really?” She was hesitant to speak, but was too astonished to stop herself from asking. </p><p>“Yeah,” Max scratched the back of his neck a little flustered, thankful for the darkness of the night for helping conceal the growing blush on his face. “You have a pretty good voice. Why didn’t you tell anybody you could sing?”</p><p>“I...” Nikki began, suddenly remembering the reason why she kept it up under wraps. She was scared her singing would annoy others the way it annoyed her mom. Whenever she would sing at her house, her mom didn’t care. Her mom would be too wrapped up in other things to sit down and listen to her daughter perform a song. Anytime Nikki would practice in her bedroom, her mom would yell for her to shut up and that she wanted silence. “...I had no reason to tell.”</p><p>Now this simple statement had Max confused. Nikki always had a detailed answer for everything, never holding back from giving mini stories whenever asked. However, now she was being strangely vague, and Max knew she was holding something back.</p><p>“What do you mean you had no reason to tell?”</p><p>Nikki couldn’t see Max well in the dark despite the fireflies and the lights in the sky, but she already knew he was looking at her in skepticism, with one eyebrow drooped and the other eyebrow raised. She decided to try and play it off as a joke, not wanting to dig a deeper hole in her crater.</p><p>“Well no one asked duh!” Nikki forced a laugh, and it could sound genuine to a lot of people. However, Max wasn’t a lot of people, and he knew that her laugh was nothing more than a facade.</p><p>“Nik, I’m not fucking stupid y’know. What’s the real reason?”</p><p>Nikki sighed before averting her gaze back at the grass.</p><p>“...I thought it would annoy people.”</p><p>Max’s eyes went wide from the statement. Nikki thought her singing would annoy people? </p><p>“I mean my mom didn’t really like it! She thought I was being too loud...” Nikki chuckled a bit. “Besides, Preston already has the role of singing at camp. I don’t wanna add anymore fuel to the fire y’know what I mean?”</p><p>“Well if you like doing it, I don’t see why try hiding it.” Max shrugged as his eyes were studying the laces on his sneakers. “Besides the difference between you and Preston is that you’re actually good at it.”</p><p>“You really think so?..”</p><p>“Nik if I thought you were shit I’d tell you you’re shit.”</p><p>Nikki felt a huge smile grow on her face. Max took notice of it and smiled a bit, before averting his gaze back to his laces so that Nikki wouldn’t catch his sneaked glance.</p><p>“Thanks Max.”</p><p>“Yeah, sure Nikki.”</p><p>They sat together for another minute in silence, but this time it wasn’t as tense. Sure they were a bit stiff, and were hesitant to move around (since you don’t always get the opportunity to spend alone time with your crush on a beautiful night in the middle of the forest). However, they grew comfortable with each other’s presence in the serene setting.</p><p>“...so are you gonna keep singing?”</p><p>The silence was broken again. Nikki’s head shot up and pivoted to Max at a speed she didn’t know she was capable of. Max looked at her in expectation, trying to not avert his gaze because of the sudden action.</p><p>“You want me to keep singing?”</p><p>“I mean we’re already here right? And you were near the end of the song too.”</p><p>“...Max I thought you hated this song.”</p><p>“Only when Preston sings it. You can HEAR the dumbass straining to hit the high notes.” Max shoved his hands deeper into his pockets and felt a blush grow again in his cheeks. “And I guess listening to your voice is soothing too. I’ve been trying to fall asleep..maybe this can help?”</p><p>Nikki felt her eyes widen for the God knows how many-th time tonight, and felt herself being overtaken by shyness once again. She knows that he’s okay with her singing, but she was still frightened singing around someone other than herself.</p><p>...</p><p>“...I don’t always relate to other people my age...”</p><p>She started off with the song’s tempo drastically slowed down, her voice barely above a whisper.</p><p>“..except when I’m on the stage. There are so many changes that I’m going through...”</p><p>Max felt his eyes start to close. This was helping him with sleep so much more than just going to the mess hall and being alone in absolute boredom. He was hesitant to lean on Nikki, and it was taking a lot of inner strength to stop himself from just drooping his head sideways onto her shoulder.</p><p>“And why am I telling this to you?”</p><p>Max perked up at the statement, realizing that the lyric was directed at him. He opened his eyes to look at Nikki, and she was looking at him with the same smile she wore when he first complimented her. And, just to Max’s hidden endearment, her eyes were twinkling again.</p><p>She took a silent but deep breath before singing the next lyric through her smile.</p><p>“Guess there’s a part of me that wants to.”</p><p>Max’s face was growing hotter by the second. Their eyes were locked and she was so focused on him that he couldn’t force himself to look away even if she tried.</p><p>“I guess a part of me likes you, who knew? I guess a part of me likes to talk to you...”</p><p>Nikki changed the words as a way of expressing her appreciation and maybe something more than that (as the lyric was supposed to be “I guess a part of me wants to”). However, she passed it on as nothing more than the words of the song and continued her singing.</p><p>“I guess a part of likes to...” </p><p>Almost all of the rest of the song became muffled to Max’s ears, mostly because that one lyric she sang to him was playing on repeat in his brain.</p><p>“I guess a part of me likes you, who knew?” </p><p>He knew it was just a song lyric, but couldn’t help his heartbeat quickening at the possible implication. Maybe there was more meaning behind the words? He decided to ignore it for the time being, as his eyelids felt heavy again and he couldn’t keep himself awake anymore.</p><p>“A guy that I’d kinda be into....is-“ Nikki was ready to wrap up her song, looking at the trees ahead of her. However, before she could joke and say the word “Jake” as it was written in the song, she felt something heavy on her shoulder. She turned her head a bit to see nothing more than “floofy hair” (as she called it) covering her eyes. She smiled a bit to herself and felt her heart do that weird drumming thing again.</p><p>She let him rest on her for a few moments before shaking her shoulders a bit.</p><p>“Max don’t fall asleep. Let’s start heading back and sleep before David calls us for breakfast.”</p><p>“Ugh fuck David...” Max mumbled a bit in response, barely awake before he resumed his snoozing.</p><p>“Typical Max.” Nikki’s mouth curved into a grin before she gently stood up, holding the boy’s shoulders with her hands to prevent him falling back onto the grass. She gently dragged him to the nearest tree before resting him onto the bark of the tree’s trunk. Even though she knew that they could get in serious trouble for not staying in their tents, and she also knew she was more than capable of carrying him back to the tent, a part of her decided against it since she was becoming too tired and walking back with Max in her arms seemed like too much of a morning challenge for her to handle on zero hours of sleep.</p><p>So she slid her back down on the tree, before slowly closing her eyes and leaning her head onto Max’s shoulder. She decided to properly finish her song before going to the land of dreams, singing with the last bit of energy she had left in her:</p><p>“...you.”</p><p>———————————————</p><p>CLICK!</p><p>The first thing Max woke up to was the sound of birds chirping and an obnoxiously loud camera flash.</p><p>He slowly batted his eyes open before he shortly wondered why his shoulder felt heavy. He looked down to see the “secret siren” of the forest knocked out on his shoulder. He felt himself smile, reminiscing on everything that happened over the past hours, before realizing that he woke up to a camera flash.</p><p>“Gwen what the hell?!”</p><p>His pupils shrank as he saw, standing before him, his other best friend Neil along with his camp counselors Gwen and David. </p><p>The voice belonged to Neil, who was pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.</p><p>“I told you to make sure the sound of the camera was off!  Now you woke him up!”</p><p>“I swore my phone said the ringer was off!” Gwen snapped back as she her eyes were still locked onto her phone. “Doesn’t matter, what matters is I got a REALLY good picture.”</p><p>“What the hell is this?!” Max whisper shouted, refusing to wake up the girl on his shoulder.</p><p>“Well first of all, I’m very disappointed in the two of you.” David scolded the hooded boy, who in response flipped his middle finger at the young adult. “I don’t care how adorable this is, neither of you are allowed to leave your tents at night! Or go into the forest without adult supervision or knowledge nonetheless! Both of you could have been lost!”</p><p>“Well you found us, so I think we’re all pretty fucking okay now.” Max muttered before turning his attention to the science nerd, feeling the stare from Neil’s blue eyes piercing Max’s skin. Neil was wearing the biggest smirk on his face, and Max would have killed him if it wasn’t for the girl on his shoulder.</p><p>“Now what happened here Max? Care to explain?” Neil questioned, silently thanking the heavens above that his hunch about Max liking Nikki was pretty much spot on.</p><p>“Neil I swear to G o d if a word of this gETS TO CAMP-“ Max hissed, and he might as well have been bluntly threatening murder. Neil didn’t seem to care however, as he knew there was somebody else on his side.</p><p>“Max, you don’t want to wake up dear Nicolette here would you?” Gwen stepped in, gesturing her head towards the teal haired girl who was still fighting wolves in her dreams.</p><p>“Gwen, breakfast started ten minutes ago. We need to head back to camp, so I think we should wake up Nikki now.” David reminded his co counselor.</p><p>“Ugh of course you decide to be the rational one now...” Gwen grunted before sighing in defeat. “Alright fine, Max wake her up. Let’s start heading back.”</p><p>“Well I have to be rational when you’re matchmaking again!” David playfully argued with the female counselor as both of them started heading back through the trees. </p><p>“Max is she awake?” Neil looked behind him and was met with Nikki resting on Max’s back, still peacefully asleep. He began to smirk at the boy again, never seeing Max act this...soft towards anybody.</p><p>“She won’t wake up.” Max muttered, speedily walking past Neil as he sloppily carried Nikki on his back. Neil laughed, knowing damn well that Max didn’t even try to wake her up. Neil ran up to Max and dropped one more sentence that he could have been killed for if it wasn’t for Max being occupied carrying the agent of chaos.</p><p>“Wow Max, I didn’t know you were capable of liking someone.”</p><p>“Shut the fuck up Neil.”</p><p>And with that, Max speed walked again, needing to avoid the endless taunts that Neil was going to throw at him for the rest of the day.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I always saw Max being the one in fanfics who had a hidden musical talent, so I decided “Hey,,,,let’s make it Nikki for a change”</p><p>And yes I know I went overboard with the writing but I really love this song so-</p><p>Also I drew some art for this if you want to see it!! It’s on my Instagram artzystarlight!</p><p>Thanks for reading !! 🥺🥺💞</p></blockquote></div></div>
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